Re-use of radioactive scrap metal
DOE has over 200,000 tons, and utilities could generate as much as 200,000 tons over the next 20 years. In 8/94, INEL formed the Northwest Consortium with PGE (Trojan) and SMUD (Rancho Seco) to reduce the cost of decommissioning. They have developed a process of melting the material, with most radiative components going into slag. The recovered metal is fabricated into low-level waste containers, multi-purpose canisters and other applications where residual radioactivity is not an issue. Overall costs for disposal of irradiated metal should be dramatically lower than other disposal options. In fact, utilities could form a consortium to use INEL's own scrap metal!